Shady Playground

Around the corner from us, at the middle school, there is a nice playground surrounded by huge trees. I took Maceo and my little video camera there one day with his friend from up the block, Julian, and his mom.

Maceo Runs On Donuts

Kate left for a quick business trip to NYC on Thursday. Maceo and I rushed her out of the house at about 6:35 so she could metro down to Union Station to catch her choo choo train to the City. But then it was too early to go to school, and Maceo and I felt it was silly to go back to the house. So we went to Dunkin Donuts. We discussed the choices of donuts the night before, and Kate had told me that he had decided on chocolate. However, when we go there, he introduced an amendment, asking for a cupcake. Thinking quickly (but not really, since it was about 6:45), I told him they only had donuts. (I know, right? Clever!) Baked Chocolate Donut coming up! And some milk, which I had brought from home. I'll let you decide if he enjoyed the experience.

If you couldn't tell, he told me later, "I like it."

Someone turned two!

Maceo turned two years old on April 12. This year, that fell on a Friday, an auspicious day because it's usually the point in the week at which Nick and I are physically and mentally depleted and I have just enough energy to beat him in Carcassonne before we pass out around 9pm from fatigue. Imagine our frantic scramble to run out and get a piece of cake to celebrate our little bean's birthday on his actual day so he thinks we remember this kind of thing. Which, when he remembers his own birthday then we will start remembering it in a timely fashion, too. 

In the meantime, though, celebrating Maceo's birthday involved us throwing him the umbrella stroller and zipping off down Rhode Island Avenue, the industrial artery into DC that leaves just about any shred of anything aesthetic at all behind. With the sound of cars and semis sputtering by to really set the mood, we picked up a slice of surprisingly delicious cake at Flip It II, ran home, stuck a candle in that thing and presented it to our somewhat mystified son. The candle and frosting were both hits! Our toddler was none the wiser about our lack of planning. Whew. His birthday was saved. Saved!

On the momentous occasion, I'll take this opportunity to summarize a few of his achievements so we can all look back on this and titter behind our hands when thinking of him at this age. Because that's what we do best: laugh at people going through major developmental stages:

1. Maceo can count to 10. Three comes after ten, fyi. And everything adds up to ten things as long as it's more than one. Two is ten, four is ten, even nine is ten, but nothing is two. Or three, or four. You get the idea.
2. Maceo can sings his abcs. This is my favorite grouping of letters: e - f - jeep. Jeep, not "g" follows f. Who knew?
3. Maceo has discovered that he and Poppa have nipples. Sometimes, Maceo likes to lift up his shirt when there are guests around, stare intently at them, and rub his nipples. Yes, it's as awkward as you can imagine for everyone involved.
4. Maceo keeps sweets in the forefront of his mind. More often than not, he'll wake in the middle of a nap, make good solid eye contact with us, and say "donut?" or "cookie?" and fall right back to sleep. This is how I know he's my son.
5. Maceo is an ant killer. And a beetle hunter. Insects fear him. Luckily, he's kind of slow and clunky as he is still getting used to his bigger size and they have time to run. Save yourselves, ants!
6. Maceo is quite bossy. When driving places, he indicates where you should go. "Go THIS way!" with an emphatic point to the right. Nick and I oblige him if it takes us no more than 3 minutes out of our way. But, oh my, when the little prince's advice is not taken, no one wants to be in the car. He does have safety in mind, though. He asks us to put our "binkers" on before taking these godforsaken circuitous turns.
7. Maceo has a vague sense that a baby is coming. I've been diligent about pointing out to him that "there's a baby in there" and showing him my ever-growing belly. Sometimes he pats it lightly and says, "Shhhh....the baby is sleeping." Other times, like a few weeks ago for example, when I picked him up at school, in a room of 5-6 toddlers and 3 caregivers, he makes some good eye contact with me, lifts up his shirt and shouts, "There's a BABY in there!" while pointing at his stomach. I don't have the heart to tell him he's wrong.
8. Maceo's best friend is his poppa. They do all sorts of fun things together, like visiting geese and turtles at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, going in bike rides, digging in the dirt, weeding in the backyard, cuddling in the morning, and not taking a bath for 4 days in a row if someone is not tracking that stuff. They're my favorite boys, lack of hygiene and all. 

Juicy things

We're overdue for tracking some of Maceo's more unique phrasings and pronunciations so here we go. As well, it appears it's been a month since we've posted last and a month in the course of a toddler's life is approximately equal to seven years. So, Maceo has learned the word "juicy."

I used it to try to persuade him away from a cookie to a juicy, delicious pear that was eagerly awaiting him on his plate. Here, juicy makes sense in referring to the pear. (As an aside, I did not persuade him away from the cookie). This morning, I got a juicy hug. Other mornings, juicy kisses. Kisses, yes, but, hugs as juicy? This boy is abusing an adjective. The winner though was the juicy water he had for dinner. You really can't argue with that. Well, you can but you can't win against him. He's ruthless.

Our favorites from the past few months include:

• In the morning after declaring his owl alarm clock has turned the correct color for him to get out of bed (geen! Owl geen!), I bring him to our bedroom for a little snuggling and: Good MORNing...PoPPA!
  
• As Nick departs for work: Have a great... DAY, PoPPA!
  
• When Nick returns in the evening from coaching volleyball: Did you have... a good DAY, PoPPA?!

The Nearsighted Leading the Untrained

My dad and hi wife Susan are at the beginning of the yearlong or so process of fostering a guide dog. He and Susan have a 4 month or so old Black Lab puppy named Slater. He is a very good and calm puppy, but even so, Maceo is a mite bit cautious around him, especially since the dog comes up to about Maceo's armpit. Last Saturday, though, they appeared to have had a breakthrough in their relationship.

The Plague, The Snowquester, and the Apocalypse

Last Thursday, we woke up to a sick little boy. Kate stayed home the first half of the day with him and I came home for the second half. Maceo was asleep for pretty much the whole day. Friday, Mom came in for emergency duty and both Kate and I went to work. Maceo did the same thing he'd done on Thursday--sleep curled up on the nearest adult body. It was very sad. Saturday continued the same, but now Kate and I started feeling a little under the weather. While I fought it off with my tough Germanic/Irish constitution, Kate's softer mediterranean side let her down and she's been sick ever since. As the only functioning person in the house, I felt a lot of responsibility, especially with the huuuuge snow storm approaching. Monday, we all stayed home, although Maceo probably could have gone to school. Kate, however, could barely move. Tuesday, Mace and I did go to our prospective schools and Kate felt a little better. Wednesday, we awoke to rain and some large flakes and cancelled schools and jobs. This was a boon for Kate, as she was going nowhere if she could help it. But Maceo was ready to go. So, we called in the special forces--Julian! He and his mom came over in the morning to play, and then we went over there in the afternoon. I think you'll be able to tell that Maceo feels a little bit better when you see him here in action.

Dancing the Night Away

The other night, Maceo was in a dancing mood. This feeling translated into multiple dances, lots of laughs, and some strange interpretive moves. The music in real life was the ABC song and "Alice the Camel." But there was enough footage of both sessions that I decided to set them to other music and edit them together to get this. I particularly enjoy the ending move of some weird version on either Downward Facing Dog or half a cartwheel.